1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for producing and dispensing a semi-frozen comestible, made from an unfrozen concentrate of the comestible containing sugar, for example, concentrated natural fruit juice such as orange juice.
2. Prior Art
Heretofore, it has been known to add water to concentrated orange juice, to refrigerate the same and to dispense the same. It has also been known to refrigerate a beverage which is a flavored sugar solution until some ice forms therein and to dispense the same, all under atmospheric pressure. It has also been known to carry out the same process using a carbonated beverage under pressure, such as the well known brands of cola beverage. From a commercialization standpoint, one difficulty with these last two methods is that they deal basically with a confection rather than with a nutritious food, thereby meeting commercial resistance from dieticians, school authorities and the like. If one were to merely freeze orange juice until it had some ice in it, the resulting product would lack the consumer appeal of a semi-frozen carbonated beverage. On the other hand, if one were to substitute orange juice for cola syrup in a semi-frozen carbonated beverage system, problems would arise since such systems do not employ refrigerated storage for the syrup and further the syrup is stored under pressure making it difficult or impossible for the operator to add additional concentrate without depressurization.